EGF-induced programmed cell death of human mammary carcinoma MDA-MB-468 cells is preceded by activation of AP-1

MDA-MB-468 is a human mammary adenocarcinoma cell line that overexpresses the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and undergoes programmed cell death (apoptosis) in response to EGF treatment. Programmed cell death was shown to be greatly enhanced when cells were growth-arrested prior to EGF treatment. Apoptosis was characterized by an initial rounding up and detachment of the cells from their substrate starting about 12 h after EGF treatment, followed by chromatin condensation, nuclear fragmentation and oligonucleosomal fragmentation of the DNA at about 24 to 48 h. Cell death was dependent on de novo protein synthesis. We found a rapid induction of c-fos, c-jun and junB at the mRNA level after about 30 min of EGF treatment and a more delayed upregulation of fosB and fra-1. The junD gene was expressed in the absence of EGF, and it was moderately induced within 30 min of growth factor addition. The increase of the different fos and jun mRNAs were paralleled by an increase of activator protein-1 (AP-1) DNA binding activity. A characterization of the AP-1 complex revealed similar levels of several Fos and Jun proteins. Based on the kinetics of AP-1 accumulation and cell death, it seems likely that AP-1 contributes to the apoptotic cell death of EGF receptor-overexpressing MDA-MB-468 cells. Received 21 July 1997; received after revision 6 November 1997; accepted 6 November 1997